Many products that have heretofore been manufactured from natural wood are now formed from composite materials that include fibers obtained from wood or non-wood sources. For example, composite panels may be formed by coating a quantity of fibers with a heat curable resin binder, placing a loose mat of these coated fibers in a press, and applying heat and pressure to the mat to reduce its thickness and cure the resin, thereby producing a thin, wood-like board. Such boards may be referred to as “chip board” or “fiber board,” depending on the source of the fibers used in their manufacture, and fiberboards, in turn, may be referred to as softboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF) or hardboard, depending on their densities. These boards are sometimes attached to rectangular frames to form doors, and, when used in this manner, are referred to as “door skins.” When such panels are formed with flat surfaces, they are often referred to as “flush” panels or “flush” door skins; when they are formed with a pattern of depressions, to simulate the appearance of a traditional rail and stile door having panels, for example, they are often referred to as “molded” panels or “molded” door skins.
While fiberboard panels have a hardness and flexibility similar to sheets of natural wood, their surfaces lack the grain and texture of natural wood, and are therefore generally not suitable for use in applications where a natural wood appearance is desired. Rather, fiberboards generally must be painted or otherwise covered to produce a finished surface. If a fiberboard panel having a wood grain appearance is desired, a layer of covering material must be applied. The layer of covering material may be a natural wood veneer or a paper, foil, or film printed with a wood grain pattern. These layers of covering material are applied in a process separate from the panel forming process, using a membrane press, for example. This additional manufacturing step, however, increases the cost of such products.
Manufactured wood products, such as the flush door skins mentioned above, may be transformed into non-planar products, such as molded door skins, by placing them into presses and subjecting them to heat and pressure. A process for transforming fiberboard panels is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,073,419, for example, which patent is hereby incorporated by reference. This patent teaches that resin impregnated crepe paper can be placed into the press while a flush panel is deformed. The creping allows the paper to stretch and deform along with the panel and provides a moisture barrier for use in water resistant applications.
The heat and pressure required for changing the shape of the flush panel have in the past required the use of a creped paper layer. Non-creped paper tended to tear and wrinkle and produce a surface that required further processing to make it acceptable as a finished surface. Prior art papers used to affect surface properties are generally creped or otherwise textured to allow them to expand with the changing surface area of the flush panel as it deforms. Therefore, they do not produce a uniformly colored surface when the article is removed from the press. Articles formed in this manner must be painted or otherwise covered to hide the wrinkles, stretch marks, and irregularity in the surface color finish.
It is therefore desirable to produce a decorative, finished surface on a panel of composite material during an operation that forms a flush panel into a molded panel.